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A Rose Is Still a Rose We've heard it before: Hit-deprived living legend unites with up-to-the-second hip producer. A Rose Is Still a Rose (Arista),...A Rose Is Still a RoseR&B We've heard it before: Hit-deprived living legend unites with up-to-the-second hip producer. A Rose Is Still a Rose (Arista),...1998-03-13

We’ve heard it before: Hit-deprived living legend unites with up-to-the-second hip producer. A Rose Is Still a Rose(Arista), however, has an unusual bloom. On tunes like ”Every Lil’ Bit Hurts” and ”Never Leave You Again,” coproducers Sean ”Puffy” Combs, Jermaine Dupri, Lauryn Hill, and others help Franklin recapture a gutsy urgency long missing from her records, earning her r-e-s-p-e-c-t once more. B+